During the summer of 2022, just over 40,000 hectares of forest has burned in British Columbia, with approximately 1200 firefighters battling wildfires, working 12-14 hour days.

Elora van Jarrett leads a 20 person crew, The Port Alberni Thunderbirds, that has been fighting a fire of just over 7,000 hectares in Keremeos.

“It certainly had its challenges, a lot of the fire line was down in the community there, but by the time I got there, it had worked its way up onto the mountainside and that's a lot of work, but it seems a lot more achievable and less stressful when you're not right up against people's homes.”

van Jarrett says approximately 40% of forest fires are man caused.

“A fire can move incredibly fast, aircraft can't do anything when a fire has gained a ton of momentum and is burning what we call at rank six, the highest fire behavior that we have on our ranking scale. If it's burning at that intensity, there's essentially nothing that we can do at that point.”

The veteran of 15 firefighting seasons says, “Fighting fires in B.C. is rewarding in so many ways, it's physically demanding, yes, but that feels like a great achievement, the best feeling is when you just worked so hard and put it all out on the line, and you come out at the end of the day just feeling invigorated but exhausted, that's my favorite day.”

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